As mobile devices such as cellular telephones and smart phones become more powerful in their capabilities, operation of the mobile devices increasingly involves the receipt and/or transmission of ever larger quantities of information. Such information can include content communicated from or to content provider websites (CPWs), which can be understood to encompass a variety of interactive websites that allow for the downloading and/or uploading (e.g., posting) of various forms of information including, for example, social networking websites (SNWs), news feeds, music and photograph websites, as well as other types of websites such as business-to-business (b2b) or business-to-consumer (b2c) websites. Also, the information received and/or transmitted by a mobile device can also include, for example, software updates allowing for modifications and/or supplements to be provided in relation to a variety of software program(s) that are implemented on the mobile device.
Many mobile devices operate to receive and/or transmit information by way of cellular networks such as 2 G and, more commonly today, 3 G cellular networks, among others. The information communicated in this manner can include both information being communicated to or from CPWs as well as software updates as mentioned above. While such information can be successfully communicated to and from mobile devices by way of such cellular networks, this conventional manner of communicating information is not always ideal. Among other things, wireless carriers are often concerned about the volume of information being communicated via the cellular networks since attempts to communicate large or excessive amounts of information can overly tax or overload the cellular networks such that the information can only ultimately be communicated at an undesirably slow pace or in a manner that may be disruptive to other communications being handled by the cellular networks. In some cases, communication of information may need to be stopped and started (or restarted) before it ultimately is completed.
With respect to software updates in particular, to the extent that a given mobile device is already performing other activities involving cellular communications when the wireless carrier (or other source of a software update) attempts to commence the software update, the performing of the software update may need to be deferred and reattempted at a later time when the mobile device is not busy. This is disadvantageous not only for the specific mobile device that is busy since installation of the software update on that mobile device is delayed, but also for the wireless carrier (or other source of the software update) attempting to install the software update. Indeed, it is often desired that a given software update be commonly applied to multiple (e.g., many thousands of) mobile devices as part of a network-wide rollout of the update. Assuming that not just one but many mobile devices may be unreceptive to a given software update at the time(s) when it is first provided, in practice it can often take a long period of time (e.g., several days) for a wireless carrier (or other source of the update) to successfully apply the update in relation to all of the mobile devices for which that update is intended.
Additionally, it may also be undesirable to mobile device users for their mobile devices to receive or transmit such information via cellular network connections. For example, it may be undesirable to a mobile device user for his or her mobile device to receive a software update via a cellular network connection if the mobile device user is also desiring that connection to be used for other purposes (e.g., for communication with a CPW). This is especially the case given that the downloading of some software updates via cellular network connections can take a relatively long period of time (e.g., ten minutes), during which period other cellular network communications may not be possible. Further, in some cases, wireless carriers charge mobile device users extra fees when the amounts of information communicated between the users' mobile devices and the cellular networks exceed specified amounts. Given such fees, users may find it undesirable for their mobile devices to send or receive particular types or information via cellular networks.
It would therefore be advantageous if improved mobile devices and/or other devices with which the mobile device can communicate, and/or related methods of operation could be developed that would help to address, at least partly, one or more concerns such as those discussed above.